Valentine's Day (pass the sickbucket)

One of my colleagues has just read out a staggering statistic about the amount spent in the US on Valentine's Day - $14.7bn.

I'm sure there were similarly mind numbing figures spent in the UK as well. What credit crunch?

Retailers of naff 'I Love You' cards and of course florists must have been rubbing their hands together in glee. Not to mention the chocolate makers who have also been flooding the shops with Easter Eggs since Christmas (WRONG!!)

Now I am probably more cynical than most over this Valentine's farce because I am currently single, but the whole idea of Valentine's Day makes me feel more than a little ill - especially when on my local radio station they were playing all the soppy songs that should have been banned from the airwaves as soon as they were released.

However the messages of love from 'Bunnykins' to their 'Daddybunny' and other such vile terms really did almost cause me to part company with my breakfast. Why do people always feel the need to share their hideous pet names with everyone in the first place, and also to do it live on air? We never used to be quite such a nauseating nation.

Surely spontaneous displays of affection all year round are far more valuable and in fact genuine, than feeling pressured into buying a gift purely because it is February 14?